Second place again at the quiz. We went down on the tiebreaker, which was calculating the distance between the Globe Pub in Chicago to the quizmaster's old apartment in St. Paul in furlongs (we thought there were 6 to a mile; there are 8).
just two questions for you tonight:
What member of the Miracle on Ice team did not see any Olympic ice time? Steve Janaszak (Craig) - We, like Flax, figured it was the backup goalie, but apparently none of us had seen Miracle. We put down Kurt Russell to be funny, but the team that wrote Tonya Harding actually got points for the laugh.
Gale Norton, Donald Evans, John Ashcroft, and Anthony Principi have all served what position under GW Bush? The "designated survivor" (James D.), or the cabinet member not attending the State of the Union address for succession purposes. The question was worded a little differently, but the gist remained. We got this one, after initially thinking "herald" or "first in the procession"
UPDATE: Curling finally made an appearance in the quiz. The question was: "bonspiel and crampits are terms associated with what sport?" Naturally I knew it on bonspiel, seeing as how I'm going to one in two days and all. But crampit? WTF's a crampit? I've been curling for 4 years now and never heard of one. I asked the quizmasters, and they didn't know, they just picked it off a list of terms. Turns out a "crampit" is a spiked metal platform players stood on to throw the rocks, using a no-slide delivery. These are not used in international or Olympic competition any more, having been replaced by hacks embedded in indoor ice. Crampits are apparently still used in New Zealand as illustrated here.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
3-chord Monday #5
As if every frame in Shaun of the Dead wasn't supremely brilliant, along came a cover of The Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" to seal the deal. Between popping up in commercials and movies (one of the Shreks, for cryin' out loud), it seems the Buzzcocks are finally getting their due. Unless you can find the out-of-print "Product" box set, the "Singles Going Steady" compilation is an absolute must-own.
The Buzzcocks - "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"
As if every frame in Shaun of the Dead wasn't supremely brilliant, along came a cover of The Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" to seal the deal. Between popping up in commercials and movies (one of the Shreks, for cryin' out loud), it seems the Buzzcocks are finally getting their due. Unless you can find the out-of-print "Product" box set, the "Singles Going Steady" compilation is an absolute must-own.
The Buzzcocks - "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"
Movie Log 2006 #8-14: B-Fest
There were actually 13 movies on the schedule, but I don't count repeats in the annual log.
This year opened with Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, with a screenplay co-written by Reeve. He didn't quite deserve his fate, but he did himself no karmic favors here. Lex Luthor uses a Superman hair to create a silly looking blonde superbeing to take on Superman. Meanwhile Superman goes to the UN and rounds up the world's entire nuclear arsenal (never mind that, as Frank Miller and Alan Moore have illustrated, the Cold War would have ended early with the presence of an invulnerable being in the US). Oh, and the Daily Planet gets bought by some Murdochian character, and his daughter is Mariel Hemingway, who has eyes for Clark. She ends up flying around in the vacuum of space sans any kind of protective gear. Except her shoulder pads.
Next up wasCreature from the Black Lagoon in 3D, which I'd seen. Still fun, but the print was a little washed out. The tints didn't match those of the glasses; the 3-D still worked to an extent, but was headache inducing. On to Godzilla (1998). Ahhh, remember when it was fun to think about NYC getting destroyed? I will give this movie credit for not wasting too much time setting things up; the ass-kicking begins almost immediately. But then we get bogged down in the backstory of the useless Maria Pitillo. The ending turns into a Jurassic Park retread.
Plan 9 From Outer Space Seen this too many times, so I went to the lounge to rest up. I also missed the first half of Coffy, which I saw the first time I went to B-Fest. Woke up in time to see the razor-blades-in-the-Afro bit; a fave.
This year's soulkiller was Gas-s-s-s!, a late Roger Corman vehicle. A nerve gas kills everyone over 25, and a group of hippies, including Ben Vereen, Cindy Williams, and "Tally Coppola" (yes, Talia Shire) go driving off in search of some Oracle. Along the way they meet a football team who practices raping and pillaging, and a group of bikers who specialize in golf. This was one of those films where every scene is supposed to mean something, but it all ends up meaningless.
There's an apparently-minority view that Troma pics don't belong at B-fest. I tend to agree; they try a little too hard to be bad and usually end up dull. Tromeo & Juliet was a step up, but I still gave up about an hour in and crashed for a while. It's the R&J story with all the dismemberment, nudity and lesbian scenes the Bard's tale was sorely lacking. Oh, and it turns out the star-crossed lovers are long-lost siblings. And they don't care and have mutant babies. Heartwarming!
So a few years ago at this event, I saw Can Heironymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? At the time I thought "who since Anthony Newley has been given free rein to write, star in, direct, and compose the music for such a turd of a vanity project? Ah yes, Prince's Graffiti Bridge! I was wondering how this would go over. The movie is crap, but the music is actually quite good. So it's some time after Purple Rain and "The Kid" and Morris Day are vying for control of The Kid's club, Glam Slam. It's not drawing all that well because his songs are "too spiritual." (I've always found it interesting that while Prince wrote all the music, the songs he gives The Time are mostly better than the ones he performs). Along comes this doggerel-spewing woman (Ingrid Chavez) who is not-so-mysteriously supposed to be an angel trying to save both Morris and Prince. In a nearly-30-year career of looking ridiculous, this movie captures Prince's lowest point: long, straightened hair, a sad excuse for a beard, and some get-ups that defy description. Thigh-high stockings with no pants. Seriously. He also shortchanges himself as a performer -- what made Purple Rain bearable was the extended performance footage. Here he's cutting in and out of songs mid-number, staging too many songs as music videos, and is spending too much time dancing around instead of playing.
Earth Girls are Easy- Not too much bad to be said here. I'd seen this before and it didn't hold up all that well, but it's light, meets its low aims, and Geena Davis spends much of her time in a bikini. And I always liked Julie Brown. Up until Eternal Sunshine this was the best Jim Carrey film, though that's not saying much. Michael McKean is wasted as a surfer-dude pool cleaner.
Rhinestone - Plenty bad to say about this, the third quasi-musical in a row. Among the people who should've known better are Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) and the late, lamented Richard Farnsworth. And Dolly Parton, of course, whom I think has a very likable performance persona, but with the exception of 9 to 5 it's never translated well to screen. Dolly's a singer who wants out of her contract with a sleazy bar owner (Ron Leibman). She bets him that in two weeks she can turn cabbie Sylvester Stallone into a singer able to win over the tough crowds at the bar's open-mic night. And since when is a NYC urban-cowboy bar the make-or-break place on the country scene? Light on the hillbilly stereotypes, but Stallone's-a gotta the parents-a straight out of a Joe Dolce song.
Cobra Woman An explorer finds his fiancee (Maria Montez) has been kidnapped and taken to Cobra Island. They track her there and finds the island ruled by an evil queen (also Montez), and that the good twin is the rightful ruler. Oh yeah, Sabu shows up, and may have top billing; I don't remember. This was good and dumb, and put the true "B" back in B-Fest.
Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 If not for Gas-s-s-s! this would have been the worst film on the bill. Having not seen the original Baby Geniuses, I thought I'd be completely lost, but it turns out the two have very little to do with each other. Okay, so babies speak their own language. Apparently in this language they talk about particle physics and Proust and things. You'd think if they were that smart they'd have figured out potty-training by now, but...well, Iet's move on. One baby in BG 1 was played by some triplets named Fitzgerald. They return in BG2, this time playing a kid superspy named Kahuna. It turns out Kahuna is actually around 70 years old and stopped growing. His full-grown evil older brother Jon Voigt -- that is, ACADEMY AWARD-WINNER Jon Voigt. He's got some nefarious plot to control kids, for all the good that's going to do.
King Kong (1933) Saw it very recently, and have seen it before at the best possible venue (Music Box), so we bailed. Besides, it was clearly too good to show at B-fest.
There were actually 13 movies on the schedule, but I don't count repeats in the annual log.
This year opened with Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, with a screenplay co-written by Reeve. He didn't quite deserve his fate, but he did himself no karmic favors here. Lex Luthor uses a Superman hair to create a silly looking blonde superbeing to take on Superman. Meanwhile Superman goes to the UN and rounds up the world's entire nuclear arsenal (never mind that, as Frank Miller and Alan Moore have illustrated, the Cold War would have ended early with the presence of an invulnerable being in the US). Oh, and the Daily Planet gets bought by some Murdochian character, and his daughter is Mariel Hemingway, who has eyes for Clark. She ends up flying around in the vacuum of space sans any kind of protective gear. Except her shoulder pads.
Next up wasCreature from the Black Lagoon in 3D, which I'd seen. Still fun, but the print was a little washed out. The tints didn't match those of the glasses; the 3-D still worked to an extent, but was headache inducing. On to Godzilla (1998). Ahhh, remember when it was fun to think about NYC getting destroyed? I will give this movie credit for not wasting too much time setting things up; the ass-kicking begins almost immediately. But then we get bogged down in the backstory of the useless Maria Pitillo. The ending turns into a Jurassic Park retread.
Plan 9 From Outer Space Seen this too many times, so I went to the lounge to rest up. I also missed the first half of Coffy, which I saw the first time I went to B-Fest. Woke up in time to see the razor-blades-in-the-Afro bit; a fave.
This year's soulkiller was Gas-s-s-s!, a late Roger Corman vehicle. A nerve gas kills everyone over 25, and a group of hippies, including Ben Vereen, Cindy Williams, and "Tally Coppola" (yes, Talia Shire) go driving off in search of some Oracle. Along the way they meet a football team who practices raping and pillaging, and a group of bikers who specialize in golf. This was one of those films where every scene is supposed to mean something, but it all ends up meaningless.
There's an apparently-minority view that Troma pics don't belong at B-fest. I tend to agree; they try a little too hard to be bad and usually end up dull. Tromeo & Juliet was a step up, but I still gave up about an hour in and crashed for a while. It's the R&J story with all the dismemberment, nudity and lesbian scenes the Bard's tale was sorely lacking. Oh, and it turns out the star-crossed lovers are long-lost siblings. And they don't care and have mutant babies. Heartwarming!
So a few years ago at this event, I saw Can Heironymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? At the time I thought "who since Anthony Newley has been given free rein to write, star in, direct, and compose the music for such a turd of a vanity project? Ah yes, Prince's Graffiti Bridge! I was wondering how this would go over. The movie is crap, but the music is actually quite good. So it's some time after Purple Rain and "The Kid" and Morris Day are vying for control of The Kid's club, Glam Slam. It's not drawing all that well because his songs are "too spiritual." (I've always found it interesting that while Prince wrote all the music, the songs he gives The Time are mostly better than the ones he performs). Along comes this doggerel-spewing woman (Ingrid Chavez) who is not-so-mysteriously supposed to be an angel trying to save both Morris and Prince. In a nearly-30-year career of looking ridiculous, this movie captures Prince's lowest point: long, straightened hair, a sad excuse for a beard, and some get-ups that defy description. Thigh-high stockings with no pants. Seriously. He also shortchanges himself as a performer -- what made Purple Rain bearable was the extended performance footage. Here he's cutting in and out of songs mid-number, staging too many songs as music videos, and is spending too much time dancing around instead of playing.
Earth Girls are Easy- Not too much bad to be said here. I'd seen this before and it didn't hold up all that well, but it's light, meets its low aims, and Geena Davis spends much of her time in a bikini. And I always liked Julie Brown. Up until Eternal Sunshine this was the best Jim Carrey film, though that's not saying much. Michael McKean is wasted as a surfer-dude pool cleaner.
Rhinestone - Plenty bad to say about this, the third quasi-musical in a row. Among the people who should've known better are Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) and the late, lamented Richard Farnsworth. And Dolly Parton, of course, whom I think has a very likable performance persona, but with the exception of 9 to 5 it's never translated well to screen. Dolly's a singer who wants out of her contract with a sleazy bar owner (Ron Leibman). She bets him that in two weeks she can turn cabbie Sylvester Stallone into a singer able to win over the tough crowds at the bar's open-mic night. And since when is a NYC urban-cowboy bar the make-or-break place on the country scene? Light on the hillbilly stereotypes, but Stallone's-a gotta the parents-a straight out of a Joe Dolce song.
Cobra Woman An explorer finds his fiancee (Maria Montez) has been kidnapped and taken to Cobra Island. They track her there and finds the island ruled by an evil queen (also Montez), and that the good twin is the rightful ruler. Oh yeah, Sabu shows up, and may have top billing; I don't remember. This was good and dumb, and put the true "B" back in B-Fest.
Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 If not for Gas-s-s-s! this would have been the worst film on the bill. Having not seen the original Baby Geniuses, I thought I'd be completely lost, but it turns out the two have very little to do with each other. Okay, so babies speak their own language. Apparently in this language they talk about particle physics and Proust and things. You'd think if they were that smart they'd have figured out potty-training by now, but...well, Iet's move on. One baby in BG 1 was played by some triplets named Fitzgerald. They return in BG2, this time playing a kid superspy named Kahuna. It turns out Kahuna is actually around 70 years old and stopped growing. His full-grown evil older brother Jon Voigt -- that is, ACADEMY AWARD-WINNER Jon Voigt. He's got some nefarious plot to control kids, for all the good that's going to do.
King Kong (1933) Saw it very recently, and have seen it before at the best possible venue (Music Box), so we bailed. Besides, it was clearly too good to show at B-fest.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
"Shameful, shameful bronze..."
Friend of mine's launching an Olympic bronze pool: Fields of Bronze. Pick 5 countries; you score for each bronze and get docked points for each gold.
He's also promising snarky commentary on NBC's "prole coverage," as he's broadcast-only. And his other hobbies include shooting fish in barrels.
Friend of mine's launching an Olympic bronze pool: Fields of Bronze. Pick 5 countries; you score for each bronze and get docked points for each gold.
He's also promising snarky commentary on NBC's "prole coverage," as he's broadcast-only. And his other hobbies include shooting fish in barrels.
I wasn't initially upset to have the Sesame Street "Capital I" song stuck in my head, but it's been two days now and I've about had it. I'm warning you not to listen here. You may as well not listen to the sad tale of the Lowercase N, either.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Took second tonight at the quiz. We led after the first round (on the history of the Macintosh), but then took a beating on a Simpsons-based round -- specifically, one based entirely on the "Cape Feare" episode. We battled back to the lead going into the final round, but then dropped three questions, two of which are below:
1. what American composer and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member has an asteroid, a gene, a goby fish, a jellyfish, a mollusk, and a spider named for him? Frank Zappa (Phil) - we were hung up on more pioneering names, and because of the marine life mentioned went with Brian Wilson, rather than the weird noodly stuff mad scientists listen to. Once the answer was revealed, Leah asked if we would have come up with it had she said "the Gary Larson of rock." Maybe. I should have thought "spider" and remembered my conversation with Julie at ABD where she mentioned a co-worker who was a huge Zappa fan.
2. In what year did Mario Lemieux retire the first time? 1997 (Brian) - we guessed 1996. I had overestimated the usual waiting period for getting into the Hockey HoF, and then forgot that the waiting period was waived in Mario's case.
3. Who was the Apple engineer who headed up the first Macintosh project? Jef Raskin (Roy)- We got this.
1. what American composer and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member has an asteroid, a gene, a goby fish, a jellyfish, a mollusk, and a spider named for him? Frank Zappa (Phil) - we were hung up on more pioneering names, and because of the marine life mentioned went with Brian Wilson, rather than the weird noodly stuff mad scientists listen to. Once the answer was revealed, Leah asked if we would have come up with it had she said "the Gary Larson of rock." Maybe. I should have thought "spider" and remembered my conversation with Julie at ABD where she mentioned a co-worker who was a huge Zappa fan.
2. In what year did Mario Lemieux retire the first time? 1997 (Brian) - we guessed 1996. I had overestimated the usual waiting period for getting into the Hockey HoF, and then forgot that the waiting period was waived in Mario's case.
3. Who was the Apple engineer who headed up the first Macintosh project? Jef Raskin (Roy)- We got this.
Monday, January 23, 2006
3-Chord Monday #4
By the way, this project will have theme months. February is Black History Month, of course. And March is Women's History Month. April will be all noveltyish acts/songs.
January remains themeless. Today's act, the Suicide Commandos, are the godfathers of the post-Soma Records Twin Cities music scene. The album this track is from is worth more on CD than on vinyl -- rather than pay $108 for an out-of-print disc, I could get a cable from Radio Shack and digitize my LP. I may be falling back on the Commandos a lot in future months.
Suicide Commandos - "You Can't"
By the way, this project will have theme months. February is Black History Month, of course. And March is Women's History Month. April will be all noveltyish acts/songs.
January remains themeless. Today's act, the Suicide Commandos, are the godfathers of the post-Soma Records Twin Cities music scene. The album this track is from is worth more on CD than on vinyl -- rather than pay $108 for an out-of-print disc, I could get a cable from Radio Shack and digitize my LP. I may be falling back on the Commandos a lot in future months.
Suicide Commandos - "You Can't"
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